Friday, February 1, 2008

My hands are much softer since I've been blogging and not doing as much housework. I go undetected as long as I hide the piles of laundry and keep coming up with excuses not to host playdates. Only kidding... about the playdates.

Work is not always required . . . there is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.-George Macdonald

Lessons learned when your car needs a new part and you're stranded at home for three days. This is one of the few times I've been able to stay home without being sick as a dog. Rent a car? No thank you I can wait. Friends are usually willing to pick your kids up from preschool, and I'll do the grocery shopping late in the evening- alone. I read Poetry Friday posts over at Karen Edmisten's Blog, made the phone calls I've been putting off, thought about organizing the garage. Notice I said thought about it because I've been practicing sacred idleness.

A year before my second, Bean was born, I found Catherine Anholt's Good Days Bad Days at a children's consignment shop.The cherished simplicity of family life is so accurately pictured in this book. The text, "In our family we have good days and bad days happy days sad days work days play days.... Every day's a different day, but the best day follows yesterday. Today!" allows for much imaginative discussion about the pictures: little girls touching snails, refusing to leave the park, splashing out the bathwater or going to the library.

You may be familiar with Catherine Anholt's illustrations from Sophie and the New Baby or the Chimp and Zee books. Many books by the picture book team of Catherine and Laurence Anholt are for very young children. Speaking of which I have a baby shower tomorrow and no gift. An online gift certificate and handmade card will be just fine.